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Tom Herman presser recap: O-Line injuries continue to pile up

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Senior offensive lineman Zach Johnson gets carted off after suffering a knee injury against SMU. | Justin Tijerina/The Cougar

 

During his weekly press conference today, head coach Tom Herman said there weren’t many adjustments made to this week’s practice as there was for last week’s short turnaround.

Herman doesn’t consider this a short week since the team has eight days to rest, but their practice routine is a day ahead of regular schedule.

“It was nice for the kids to have a couple of days off and kind of get their legs back under them after a short week,” Herman said. “As we begin to prepare again another unique week with a game on Friday we will treat today like Tuesday so today is a championship Tuesday.”

When breaking down Tulane, Herman said the strength of their team is their defense.

“Their front four are the best front four that we will have played all year,” Herman said, “which coincides nicely with our lack of offensive line depth.”

During the SMU game, the No. 24 Cougars suffered three injuries to their offensive line. Senior Zach Johnson, sophomore Josh Thomas and sophomore Marcus Oliver all went down with injuries.

Herman confirmed today that Zach Johnson will be out for the season with a knee injury.

“He basically tore every ligament in his knee,” Herman said. “ACL, MCL, Meniscus, Patellar Tendon, I mean everything is shredded up so he’ll have surgery, possibly two surgeries at different times.”

Herman said Josh Thomas had a high ankle sprain and tore a ligament off the bone and will also have surgery for his injury.

“Not expecting (Thomas) back,” Herman said. “But could there be an outside chance? From what they’re telling me yes, but I’m not counting on it.”

Marcus Oliver suffered an ankle sprain. Herman said he’s cleared to practice but has to show that he can perform in order for him to put him in the game Friday.

“(Oliver) got beat a couple times in the game,” Herman said. “Not because he’s not good enough but because he was favoring that ankle, so we got to make sure that when and if he’s asked to come into the game that he’s not out there gimping around.”

This is the second season in a row Zach Johnson is forced to sit out. In 2014 he suffered a torn ACL and will now sit out the 2015 with another knee injury. Herman said he still plans to have him around as a mentor to the younger players on the team.

“It’s gut-wrenching. I mean him and Ben Dew, both seniors, and we all think this season is on a trajectory to be a memorable one if we continue to do the things that we’ve done and not change,” Herman said. “But to have their senior years both cut short just rips your heart out. You know we’ll find a way to use them.”

Next on the depth chart for the offensive line is red-shirt freshman Mason Denley and senior Damien Parris. Herman said it will be a combination of the new offensive lineup getting ready to play as well as the offensive staff having them ready to play.

“We have to be really smart in terms of what we ask them to do because to say that the play book is wide open would be foolish,” said Herman. “It’s not just a Tulane issue, it’s going to be a season long issue so we need to think really long and hard about what we’re asking those guys to do.”

The No. 24 Cougars will try to avenge a 2014 loss to Tulane when they head to New Orleans on Friday to face the Green Wave.

“We’ll figure it out,” Herman said. “There’s been worse situations come up in the history of college football that teams have overcome and we’ll certainly overcome this one.”

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